Garden Update

The tomatoes continue to ripen, but they are cracking-- ugh! I read that tomatoes crack when there is a drastic change in moisture, so I'm betting our weeks-long dry spell followed by a few days of rain is what did them in. One plant shows evidence of tomato hornworm activity, but I haven't been able to nab the little sucker.

Another summer squash plant succumbed to the vine borers, so now I'm down to one and it's only a matter of time before it's gone, too. The pepper plants are still short, but I did harvest a small pepper off of one, and there are a couple more peppers coming along.

In place of the squash, I planted six strawberry plants that I got on sale for 50% off. They won't produce until next summer, but hopefully getting them in the ground this summer will give them a good foundation for next spring. There are six more strawberry plants waiting to go into the raised beds once the peppers, tomatoes, and melons come out.

I also did some work in the flower beds and containers as well this week.

Iris that were liberated from the woods-- there's about 20 plants in the bucket.

The iris were planted around the deck.

I love this pony planter, but I hated having to water the marigold and violet that called it home every single day. Out with the old flowers, and in with a new succulent that doesn't require daily watering.

Strawberry plants

Daylilies, coneflowers, daisies, and rudbeckia in the front of the house.

One of the peppers

One of the larger onions

Lettuce seedlings before thinning.

Cracked tomatoes

A little bell pepper

Japanese beetles destroyed this vine and its counterpart in the rail planters. Since they looked so bad, I went ahead and pulled them out.

The petunias are still going strong!